Monday, May 15, 2006

Funday Monday

Ooh, some fun stuff on the comics internet at the mo' - which is funny, 'cause I thought last week was really "blah" all around, didn't see much coverage that was giving me the ADD Jitters. Either I was looking in the wrong places, or else this week's just getting off on the right foot. Either way, I'm happy.

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For starters, there's Blair's usual great work at All The Rage, but this time he rumours a new Azzarello / Bermejo project that tells a "parallel" story to their Lex Luthor: Man Of Steel mini. That series, as a whole, was kind of disappointing, but there were spectacular moments throughout, including what I kinda felt was a cannon-defining explanation of Luthor's hatred for Superman in the first issue. "You are my nightmare." Gave me chills.

So, yeah, I'd be on board for whatever this may be.

Plus, Blair reminds me (how did I forget?!) that the Ultimate Fantastic Four annual this year will be done by Mike Carey and Stuart Immonen, both of whom I'm balls-out for. Carey's run (with regular artist Pasqual Ferry) on UFF is something I'm really excited about and the artwork looks fantastic. Hot damn!

Much more (bigger) art at the link.

Oh, and the Brubaker / Phillips thing I've been kinda hinting at for the last few weeks?

The one that's gonna make me shit my pants?

Yeah, that got announced at Bristol.

The link.

Now.

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Got an e-mail today from Jason Webley, one of Seattle's great local musicians. The fellow has a new CD coming out and I'm pre-ordering now.

You can listen to Real Audio files at this part of his site, which I recommend you try doing.

Imagine Tom Waits and James Taylor reading Mother Goose rhymes to their child, and you're probably headed in the right direction.

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I think I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed Strange Girl #8, which I think came out two weeks ago. The guest art by Jerome Opena (who will be taking up the reigns on Fear Agent for alternating arcs with Tony Moore) was absolutely jaw-dropping - fuckin' brilliant stuff, and I can't wait to see what he does with Fear Agent.

Funny I should be thinking about the cool new Strange Girl artist, though, because writer Rick Remender had an announcement regarding just that.

Beginning with issue #10 (the beginning of a new arc, it seems), Strange Girl will be under the sound artistic control of Nick Stakal, whose work I first noticed in Fused! Tales #1, back in December. I'll be looking forward to his work on the book, especially if it keeps coming like this:

Much more art, and again, bigger, at the link.

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Bummer. I was really enjoying The Thing. Hopefully Slott's got more stuff in the works...

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From Spurgeon to The Savage Critic(s) to Quality Control, this link - discussing the 50 Greatest Marvel Characters - is really very sound work. You'd think it'd be hard to get me to agree with such a thing, but I'm telling ya, the choices are good ones.

And you have to appreciate anybody who points out that "If our world were Marvel's world, Stephen Hawking would probably be MODOK."

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I love Zilla's blog for a lot of reasons, but one of 'em is the daily quotes he throws up. What made me take note today was Frederick Douglass, quoted here from Battle Hymn: Farewell to the First Golden Age:

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Lord, that's fuckin' brilliant. Frederick Douglass could whup Malcom X any day of the week.